🎬 Festival Highlights

⦁ Opening Night (Thursday, Libbey Bowl) Free community screening of The Rare Breed (1966), a family-friendly Western starring Jimmy Stewart and Juliet Mills. Juliet Mills, this year’s Distinguished Artist Award recipient and Ojai local, will give a Q&A before the movie. 
⦁ 91 films total, representing 36 countries from around the world: Narrative and documentary shorts and features and Animation. Screenings run throughout the day, Thursday through Monday, at Ojai Art Center and Matilija Auditorium
⦁ Seminars and panels (Art Center Gallery) include presentation on silent films shot on the Channel Islands, post-production music panel on the role of music in independent film, distribution & film entertainment seminar led by  Tisha Morris and Michelle Edelman, AI in Film Panel featuring Mary Duda, one of the world’s foremost AI experts, with additional AI specialists joining via Zoom and in person.
⦁ Winning Screenplay Table Read: live performance with actors and a director interpreting the festival’s screenplay contest winner.
⦁ Receptions Friday and Saturday nights
⦁  Closing Day (Monday) Gold Coast showcase at Matilija Auditorium — films produced locally in Ojai, Ventura County, and surrounding area.